Comment by terhechte | Hacker News Reader

Comment by terhechte | Hacker News Reader

I love this idea. I live in Germany, and (as pointed out in the text) carpenters can still be seen from time to time during their journeyman years (which is called "Wanderschaft" or "Walz" in German). Slightly OT but here's a picture of what it looks like when they walk across the country [1] I always found this concept deeply fascinating because these people get a chance to see many things from different perspectives simply because they move out of their local village, which many people never do.

The application of this concept on modern trades like software development is certainly very interesting. I'm tempted to think that the biggest gain it might have is that one (as the journeyman) can get quick insights into the deep differences between workflows and company culture in the various companies one approaches. I mean, we all know how different the current employer compared to the previous employer can be, now imagine having such a switch every 1-2 weeks.

[1] http://www.berufsausbildung-bau.de/images/Wandergesellen.jpg

Seriously? I don't see how it could even be interpreted as sarcastic. Those clothes do not look like clothing that is worn by carpenters in my country, and they also do not look practical. Why would you want to be sawing wood and carpentering in bell bottom pants and a floppy hat, for example? The outfit is obviously not entirely directly related to sawing and hammering, unless they saw or hammer with walking sticks in Germany. I don't know, so I asked... Is this site not for discussing things? I apologize for not knowing everything about the culture in your country.

Sorry, I wasn't the one who hellbanned the comment. It could be interpreted as ridiculing, however I thought it may have been genuine interest (as it was) and so I asked. It may just be a effect of generation reddit that short questions like yours can be read as being targeted as ridiculing.

That said, the clothing is very traditional but still being worn by modern carpenters. I have a friend who does the job, and he always wears those clothes for work. Usually, without the hat and the stick, those are mostly added only for the waltz, however only based on my limited knowledge, I've never been a carpenter here.

FWIW, I think hellbanning that comment was WAY out of line. It sounded like a sincere question to me. In fact, it was a question I was wondering myself. In any case, for such a severe sanction, the commenter surely should have been given the benefit of the doubt.

That account appears to have been hell-banned a while ago, see comment history.

it is absolutely practical.

these guys are supposed to be working outside, on top of roofs, etc.

the bellbottoms protect you from stuff falling into your boots. sawdust, nails, water, etc.

the hat protects you from sun, etc.

this uniform is meant as the only thing that you travel in. those guys walk and tramp across the country or even europe. their outfit is multifunctional and very, very old. it is meant to make you standout, it signals who you are and what you're doing.

@ytdtty your comment has been hellbanned, though I'm not sure whether it was meant as sarcastic as it sounded. So for the sake of hoping that it was genuine interested, yes they do.

Does the size of the hat have any significance?

(Genuine interest.)

Hah! Thanks for that, I've seen folks in that costume in Switzerland and always thought they were musicians :)

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